Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero

Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero, commonly known as Quo Vadis, is a historical novel written by Henryk Sienkiewicz in Polish. 'Quo vadis, Domine?' is Latin for 'Where are you going, Lord?' and appears in Chapter 69 of the novel in a retelling of a story from the apocryphal Acts of Peter, in which Peter flees Rome but on his way meets Jesus and asks him why he is going to Rome. Jesus says, 'If thou desertest my people, I am going to Rome to be crucified a second time', which shames Peter into going back to Rome to accept martyrdom. This novel contributed to Sienkiewicz's Nobel Prize for literature in 1905. Jan Styka was a Polish painter noted for producing large historical, battle-piece, and Christian religious panoramas. He was also illustrator and poet. Known also as a great patriotic speaker - his speeches were printed in 1915 under the French title L'me de la Pologne (The Soul of Poland). From the 1896 edition, Translated from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin.